Equity, Justice, Fairness and Participation

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Equity, Justice, Fairness and Participation

• john a. powell
• Institute on Race and Poverty
• University of Minnesota Law School

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What is the relationship between equality,
justice, fairness and participation?

• Our framework for answering this question is
  critical to attaining our ultimate social justice
  goal dismantling structural racism and its
  impact on communities of color

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Examining our institutional and structural
arrangements and recognizing their relationship
to equality/fairness/justice/participation
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If you want to know if a society is just, you
cannot tell by looking at the attitudes and
beliefs of individual citizens. Although this
might be relevant, one must look at the
institutions, structures, practices and material
conditions of that society. Indeed one might say
that these in fact impact and help to form the
individual beliefs and attitudes of individuals.

• John Rawls

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Institutions and structuresshape voice and
affect remedies and the distribution of resources

• Groups must express themselves in the same
  language and form of the institution in order to
  affect remedies and the distribution of
  resources, and remedies and resources in turn
  shape voice and future opportunities

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Some examples of how institutions and structures
shape the distribution of resources
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Education

• Funding/tax structural arrangements produce
  separate and unequal education in building,
  staffing, and curriculum resources, and
  ultimately attainment

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Educational attainment gaps

• In 2000, the break down for 25 year olds and over
  receiving four year college degrees was 19
  White, 3 Black (84 disparity), and 7 Hispanic
  (63 disparity)

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Educational attainment gaps continued . . .

• In 2001, the break down for high school
  graduation rates was 78 White, 56 Black (29
  disparity), and 54 Hispanic (31 disparity)

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Education funding gaps

• 1997 U.S. GAO report found that the average
  school in wealthy districts receive 24 more
  funding than the average school in a poor
  district In Missouri, the schools wealthiest
  districts receive 70 more funding
• Blacks and Hispanics are over-represented in
  those districts that lack adequate funding for
  education

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Housing

• Financial structural arrangements produce
  disparities in mortgage lending and homeownership
  opportunities

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Homeownership gaps

• In 2000, the homeownership break down was 73.8
  White, 47.2 Black (36 disparity), and 46.3
  Hispanic (37 disparity)

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Homeownership gaps continued . . .

• In 2000, the break down for credit denial was 22
  White, 45 Black (51 disparity), and 31
  Hispanic (29 disparity)

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Recognizing that race is a social construct,
racial/ethnic disparities arealso a social
construct.

• Administered through institutions, social,
  political, economic, cultural and other factors
  create and shape racial/ethnic disparities, and
  racial/ethnic disparities are then used by the
  dominant group as a means of maintaining
  inequality and domination, and justifying White
  privilege.

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Institutions and group agency are interactive and
affect future opportunities

• Because low wealth communities of color receive
  less resources and/or a mismatch of resources
  they are less likely to have the capabilities to
  effectively participate in transforming
  institutions and utilize existing remedies, this
  in turn affects future opportunities

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Even when controlling for achievement,
institutions produce outcomes that oppress some
while privileging others
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Some examples of equal achievement producing
disparate outcomes

• Home value gaps
• Wage gaps
• Sub-prime loan gaps

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Even though homeownership rates among Blacks have
increased, a study based on 1990 data reveals
that in 100 of the largest urban housing markets
in the U.S., White homeowners had a mean income
of 54,015 with a house mean value of
142,637while Blacks had a mean income of
38,293 with a house mean value of 82,630 (82
of the value of White homeowners)
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2000 median annual earnings (year-round,
full-time) data show that Black men receive 78
of the wages of White men, Hispanic men receive
63, Black women receive 64, and Hispanic women
receive 52
20
In 1998, sub prime loans accounted for 51 of
home loan refinancings in predominantly African
American neighborhoods, but only 9 of White
neighborhoods 39 of families in high-income
Black neighborhoods received sub prime home
loans, while less than half that number of
families in low-income White neighborhoods
received sub prime loans
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Formal equality reinforces existing power
structures because it presumes all groups are
similarly situated, refusing to account for group
differences
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At the same time that institutions disregard and
reinforce inequitable outcomes, institutions
allow varying forms of social discrimination to
exist
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Social discrimination acknowledges and accounts
for group differences outside of a racial/ethnic
context
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Additionally, because opportunities/opportunity
structures are often determined by a complex set
of interrelated institutional constraints, the
cumulative constraints work in concert to exclude
and marginalize low wealth communities of color
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In the international context where capital is
mobile but people are not, prohibiting the
excluded and marginalized from moving to
opportunity structures, the plight of low wealth
communities becomes a global issue
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How might institutions and structural
arrangements be transformed to promote equality,
justice, fairness, and participation for all?
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Focusing on equality in the capability to achieve

• Under this framework, we are most likely to
  effectively address the structural arrangements
  which produce and maintain racial/ethnic
  inequality

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Equality of capabilities produces equality in
outcomes relevant to group differences

• Recognizing that some groups are situated
  differently in regards to power and may need more
  or different kinds of goods to achieve equality
  of capability

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This framework empowers the low wealth
communities of color to transform the
institutional and structural arrangements that
continue to exclude and marginalize them
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References

• 2000 U.S. Census Bureau Data
• David Rusk, The Segregation Tax The Cost of
  Racial Segregation to Black Homeowners, October
  2001
• National Committee on Pay Equity, from U.S.
  Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, March
  2001

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References continued . . .

• HUD Study, Unequal Burden Income and Racial
  Disparities in Sub-prime Lending in America, 2000
• The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, High
  School Graduation Rates in the U.S., November
  2001
• HMDA Data, Fact Sheet, July 2001

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References continued . . .

• U.S. GAO, School Finance State Efforts to Reduce
  Funding Gaps Between Poor and Wealthy Districts,
  Letter Report February 5, 1997